S/N: 1C188190
Manufactured between December 1940 and December 1941. Portable typewriter with black wooden case.
This looks to be the latest of the 1C series Corona Standard flattops in the Typewriter Database. Dirty and needs restoration, but looks imminently salvageable. Can’t wait to polish this beauty!
@chrisaldrich Have you seen the Library of Congress’s World War II–era photos of typewriters?
I’ve been wanting a flat top for a while and couldn’t pass up the opportunity when I saw this one pop up. I made a ridiculous bid on it when it was in the $15 range and ultimately scored it for a very reasonable $56 when I’ve been seeing these go for $75-150 recently.
Sadly it got bounced around a bit in shipping and the lock was broken and one of the rock hard feet was broken. It needs a serious cleaning and some minor restoration work, but I should be able to restore this to near-new condition.
The key legends are a bit drunk and, surprising to me seem to be thick covered cardboard and not the old school glass keys. (Maybe I’ll swap out some older keytops from a parts machine?)
The rubber feet and the platen have hardened and will need replacing. Hopefully someone’s making these feet for replacement.
The case look like it got waterlogged at some point, but isn’t in horrible shape considering. Some of the fittings on it definitely need some rust treatment. The machine also has a mild musty smell that will require some airing out in the sunshine.
It’s really going to shine once I’m able to polish up the piano black enamel finish. Not bad for an 83 year old machine!
@markstoneman I don’t think all those captions would pass today. Maybe next year.
@markstoneman I’ve seen a few collections, but I don’t think I’ve ever looked up the LoC’s. Thanks for the pointer.
@odd Reminds me that I need to get back a machine I loaned out with a Woody Guthrie “This machine kills fascists” sticker. Or maybe just buy more stickers and loan out more machines… Perhaps I ought to schedule a type-in on January 20th?
@chrisaldrich It certainly has the potential for doing so! If you decide to design the sticker, I’ll happily buy them for my machines. It would be perfect on my 1940 Hermes Baby.
@odd Blurgh.
@odd Guthrie has a store with versions of the sticker already available.
@chrisaldrich Thanks! Ordered.
Spent an hour today cleaning up the case of my Corona Standard and removing some rust from the metal fittings. Some of the material is peeling away from the case and I’m debating whether or not I ought to recover the entire thing—a restoration project I’ve not yet done on any of my machines.
Took it with me to the car wash to blow out all the cobwebs using their air guns. (I’m really hoping for that new air compressor for Christmas.)
The restoration work on my 1941 Corona Standard is coming along nicely so far.
